Aspirinsmurf
Hero
Oh ye of little faith!
I hope this result means that you can continue your creative business and enrich our world with the fruits of your endeavors.
That said, I'd personally like to see the legacy SRDs released under the CC too.
Hasbro won't back off from deauthorizing the OGL, and nor should they.
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I hope this result means that you can continue your creative business and enrich our world with the fruits of your endeavors.
That said, I'd personally like to see the legacy SRDs released under the CC too.
wingsandsword
Legend
I'm glad all of us who thought they wouldn't back down (you aren't the only one) was wrong.
I didn't think they would either.
I can only imagine there were some very intense conversations at the boardroom level in Hasbro, because their stock was going into a dive and this was the apparent cause. . .and the rapid turnabout and the CC release of the 5.1 SRD was the emergency damage control measures they figured would stop the hemorrhaging and repair at least a little of the lost community goodwill (by putting the 5e rules under a license they have no control over, and throwing a few snippets of "protected" creatures like mind flayers and beholders in there and mentioning Strahd too).
FWIW, my op is still sound. Hasbro has no financial incentive to reverse course. Only they know for sure why they did what they did (and I suspect we will never know), but it wasn't based on financials. Either way, I don't care for the reason, I'm just glad they did.
Bix and Box
Explorer
Why do you think Hasbro (or WotC) aren't motivated by financials? They're corporations. It's all that motivates them.
I spelled that out in the OP. The numbers just aren't there. There is no statistical correlation between Hasbro's stock movement and the OGL.
Bix and Box
Explorer
Stock price plunged 8% on Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, they capitulated.
Before that, Paizo announced crazy record sales. WotC was watching unprecedented cancellations of subscriptions, with no end in sight. And the fan backlash endangered the earning potential of Hasbro's movie.
No, it was all about the money. They're business people! There's no mystery here. They're the most predictable creatures there are.
They were motivated by money to cancel the OGL. And they were motivated by money to panic and reverse course.
No, this is not true. Or at least, that's not the reason. We can tell by looking at Hasbro's stock over the past year. There are a lot of other things that have had a direct impact (earnings reports, layoffs, etc) that are much more highly correlated. Looking at each of the OGL announcements from Hasbro since this started, and there is no pattern of impact to the stock. Sometimes it dropped. Sometimes it went up. Completely unrelated.
We can also tell this by looking at how much revenue D&D is compared to the entire company.
Vaalingrade
Legend
It's okay to just abandon a hypothesis that's proven incorrect.
Bix and Box
Explorer
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Clearly, there was a fierce internal battle of office politics here, and somebody lost HARD. We do not, and may never know, who did what or why internally (I'd buy the full blow by blow historical exposé in a heartbeat!).
But my operatio al hypothesisnis thst within WotC, there people who fall onto the Pro-Open Gaming [OG], anti-OG, and OG-Neutral positions. The pPro-OG people know that open gaming is ultimately good for Hasbro for the reasons Ryan Dancey advanced 20 years ago, the Anti-OG crowd thinks it is bad for Hasbro because of the reasons lined out in the OGL 1.2 Survey announcement, and the OG-Neutral camp (who probavly has the most power, i.e. I bet Cynthia Williams is here) are probably open to persuasion depending on data and arguement.
The initial hamfisted power grab probsvly came from. The Anti-OGL faction after convincing the OG-Neutral crowd that there was a legitimately business case and nobody would care, while the 1.2 proposal was probavly a compromise intended by the Pro-OGL faction to go over like a lead balloon and convince the OG-Neutral decision makers to change course permanently.
Now, given what we have been hearing...I wouldn't be surprised if Pro-OG WotC employees maybe even took some mass action, like all the designers demanding the CC and OGL protection or they would quit en masses and seek employment from. Kobold Press and Paizo or something.
Still, ultimately I'm sure the final motivation was financial...but this time with more long term thinking.
Amrûnril
Adventurer
Weighed on the scale of Hasbro's overall finances, the costs of attempting to deauthorize the OGL were likely small. But the costs didn't just have to be absorbable, they also had to be worth the perceived reward. Evidently, the Hasbro/WotC leadership stopped beleiving that to be the case. Which I think was clearly correct, even from a cynical business perspective. The OGL dispute was a bigger threat to the success of WotC's VTT and other future products than the OGL itself ever was.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
I doubt that Chris Cocks and Cynthia Williams appreciated whoever pushed for this getting people to call for their blood on social media.
My hypothesis is that hasbro had no financial incentive based on the numbers to reverse course. How has that been proven false? Do you have any data that proves DND sales lost to the OGL mess is significant enough to drive the stock? Do you have insider knowledge that proves the financial impact of wanting to revoke the OGL is the reason they changed course? Because I haven’t seen any.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
They must have one, even if it isn't stock right now.
You make it sound like they saw the stock price change that morning, and had the 5.1 SRD ready and published with the CC license just after lunch. That seems like an implausible speed for cause and effect. Someone had made the decision to at least prepare that eventuality before Friday.
More importantly, it is more than okay - it is proper - to hold hypotheses that you have no way to test in abeyance. Staking out a position when you have no way to verify it you are correct is not wisdom.
Bix and Box
Explorer
How hard have you been looking?
A whistleblower from Wizards of the Coast breaks silence about the execs who own Dungeons & Dragons, says they "see consumers as obstacles between them and their money"
Discover topics like gaming, dnd, tabletop games, dungeons and dragons, fantasy, and the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from...
imgur.com
"Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have."
"I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money..."
"I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations."
Lol. That’s hardly evidence. Let me guess, same source that said they are charging $30 a month for Beyond?How hard have you been looking?
A whistleblower from Wizards of the Coast breaks silence about the execs who own Dungeons & Dragons, says they "see consumers as obstacles between them and their money"
Discover topics like gaming, dnd, tabletop games, dungeons and dragons, fantasy, and the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from...
"Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have."
"I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money..."
"I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations."
Bayushi_seikuro
Adventurer
I think one key thing overlooked in this statement is: Yes, they can see all the DDB cancellations. But, they can also see who cancelled DDB that ever bought anything digitally from DDB, even if they bought piecemeal parts. I think it is a safe bet that the vast majority of DDB accounts are only used by players, and maybe a decent amount my players who are already sharing the DM's books in the campaign.
I still put my money on all of this having been part of Astra Fox's push to spin D&D off from Hasbro/Wizards and put three new people of their choosing onto the board.
Bix and Box
Explorer
Sure, when you quote me out of context. But had you only read the very next sentence, you would have discovered what happened before that morning...
"Before that, Paizo announced crazy record sales. WotC was watching unprecedented cancellations of subscriptions, with no end in sight. And the fan backlash endangered the earning potential of Hasbro's movie."
(Hopefully by bolding it, you won't miss it this time.)
All that sowed the seeds of panic. The stock plunge was apparently the final straw.
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